FIFA’s 2009 Confederations Cup organizing team has no plans to postpone or relocate next month’s tournament, which is widely regarded as a dress rehearsal for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be staged in South Africa next year. The possibility of an outbreak of swine flu in SA will be counteracted by thermal scanners to be installed at three airports to monitor raised body temperatures of arriving visitors. Isolation wards will also be activated at hospitals near ORT airport and sufficient antivirals will be available to treat 100 000 individuals.
The first outbreak was in Mexico where 16 people have died. Sixteen countries are now infected including Canada, Germany, the UK and Israel. Countries participating in the Confederations Cup: Spain, New Zealand, Brazil and the US have now reported cases.
Apart from the swine flu threat, another pressing problem facing the organizers is that only 320 000 of the 640 000 tickets (50%) have been sold, six weeks before the first match kicks off.
Organising Committee chief, Danny Jordaan, is confident that Confederation Fever would explode in the near future, within the next couple of weeks, as international football stars such as Kaka (Brazilian) and Fabregas & Torres (Spain) prepared to come to South Africa to do battle. Marketing Director, Derek Carstens said that the build up was “decent”, given that the publicity budget was only R 15 million for eight months.
The recently relocated (from India to South Africa for security reasons) IPL Cricket tournament has spent about eight times that amount in just six weeks.
To patrol the 2010 World Cup stadiums, police want to deploy a fleet of unmanned, radio-controlled surveillance aircraft. They will be slightly larger than normal model aircraft and are equipped to carry camera equipment that enables security officials to keep tabs with events on the ground. However, the South African Civil Aviation Authority said this week that the planes were technically illegal. These aircraft do not confirm to civil airworthiness requirements and there are safety concerns over the possibility of collisions with other aircraft, or the aircraft crashing into the ground.
The purchase of the security aircraft is part of a R 650 million budget to help police officials improve crowd management and prevent crime. They will also use water cannons, mobile command centres and bullet-proof vests.
Coca Cola Park was the scene of yesterday’s football match between Chiefs and Pirates which tested the readiness of the stadium to host the Confederations Cup on June 14, when hosts South Africa play Iraq in the opening match. It also hosts a semifinal and the final match. The surface was not perfect, with patches around the centrefield bumpy from hard use in rugby games. The grass is certainly set to take a beating soon with the British Lions rugby tour coinciding with the FIFA soccer event. 51 600 fans were well behaved and there was no sign of problems that led to 43 fans being crushed in the 2001 stampede. Law enforcers were everywhere and used foot patrols as well as horse mounted officers.
FIFA rules of a 1 km radius of free traffic flow were strongly enforced by the Johannesburg Metro Police and no problems were experienced with the Park & Ride facility which ferried fans from car park areas such as Wits University.
As well as the Confederations Cup, many British Lion’s Rugby fans are also expected in South Africa to support their teams. ”Coupled with the IPL Cricket which ends on 23 May, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in June and the ICC 8-Nations Champions’ Trophy in September, South Africa is certainly expecting thousands of fans for the upcoming top level sporting events,” notes Robert Wilson. CEO of Magicmarketing.co.za and travelinsouthafrica.net . “Fans should ensure that their transfers and accommodation are booked early,” he said. Hotels and airport transfer reservations should not be left until the last minute.
For more information and bookings visit http://www.travelinsouthafrica.net
Opinion by Robert Wilson
CEO, Magic Marketing.co.za & Travel in South Africa.net
Specialist Tour and Transport Operators, Johannesburg, South Africa
